Vote on Ideas for the 2018 Ontario Budget

Up to $5 Million will Bring Voter-Selected Ideas to Life
Ontario is inviting the public to vote on ideas submitted through Budget Talks, an innovative online consultation to develop policies that will be part of Ontario’s future.

This year more than 700 ideas were submitted in five focus areas including child care, seniors, small business, students and healthy living. Up to $5 million is available in Ontario’s 2018 Budget to implement the most popular ideas.

Visit Ontario.ca/Budgettalks to vote for your three favourite ideas before 5 p.m., January 26, 2018. Selected ideas will be announced as part of the upcoming 2018 Budget.

Engaging people across the province in the budget process is part of Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

QUICK FACTS

In 2017, people submitted 404 ideas, wrote 923 comments and casted 19,229 votes as part of Budget Talks. Reducing and preventing food waste, improving digital services for libraries and accessing digitized health data were the three ideas that received the most public votes and were included in the 2017 Budget. View the project tracker to follow our progress, as we work to implement the ideas.

Ontario is the first province to commit to funding ideas from the public as part of its budget process.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

“Budget Talks is an excellent opportunity for the public to submit ideas that will help build a brighter future for people across Ontario. Public engagement is fundamental to the development of good public policy. We now need your help to decide which ideas will be funded as part of the 2018 Budget.”
— Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance